Empty Embrace
by EbonySparrow
Summary: Words that should never be spoken. Escape the lips. A young woman is cast down into the Underground. Where nothing is as it seems, and people are forever wearing masks to hide who they trully are.


Words that should never be spoken. Escape the lips. A young woman is cast down into the Underground. Where nothing is as it seems, and people are forever wearing masks to hide who they trully are.

Rated R for future content.

Empty Embrace

_I do not own The Labyrinth or any of the characters associated with it. Although, owning Jareth could have it's possibilities... ;;_

**Chapter One**

Sarah pressed her head against the cold glass looking down onto the street below. When was he going to call, why was she even waiting? It was raining, it was always raining she thought as she felt the cool glass on the tip of her nose, creating little fog clouds on the glass as she sighed heavily. She was tired, the sleepy type and the emotional type. The streetlight below lit up each raindrop so that it looked like a shower of sparks. Christ, was he going to call? She got up and walked back upstairs to her room. The book lay on her bed, Karen must have been cleaning again. She picked up the book like it contained a deadly disease and threw it up her bed. All her books and toys were gone now and have been replaced with a stereo, magazines and makeup. She had grown-up a lot in the past two years since she had ventured The Labyrinth. Even Lancelot and her musicbox were in the attic now. She was "18 and didn't need those childish things anymore" she thought of Karen's new favorite saying.

She was a senior in highschool now. There were no fairytales. Now that she really thought about it the whole thing must've been a dream, a very vivid dream. But she couldn't give up on it. Everynight she called for her friends and everynight they never appeared until one year afterward when she stopped calling. That was when she packed it all away. She gave up her fantasies and in return got a real social life and a boyfriend. The thought of her boyfriend just made her angry and sad tonight. He was supposed to call an hour ago. He always called the same time every friday. Maybe something bad had happened, maybe he just didn't care.

Sighing heavily she grabbed a magazine and flipped furiously through the makeup adds. She soon got bored and just lay there listening to music and finally fell asleep.

She awoke to the sound of Karen busting around the kitchen and slumped out of bed at the smell of coffee. She was still in yesterday's clothes, but she didn't care. Karen gave her a dissaproving glance as she set a plate of pancakes infront of her. "Mmph, just coffee please.", Sarah said groggily.

"Sarah, you know how unhealthy that is. Anyway, your just skin and bones and you didn't even eat dinner last night what with you waiting for that boy to call." Karen snipped as she handed her orange juice instead.

The phone rang loudly, causing Sarah to squint in pain. Karen always asked her if she had been drinking when in fact Sarah just really wasn't a morning person. Karen answered the phone as she juggled a syrup-covered Toby and his dirty plate.

"Who is this again? Oh Bobby, yes she is here..."

Sarah jumped up at the mention of Bobby's name and snatched the phone from Karen.

"Hi Sarah. Sorry about last night I was just, uh, busy." the young man's voice said, muffled by apparent movement from the speaker.

"Oh, it's no problem Bobby. You said you needed to talk to me?" Sarah said anxiously.

"Yeah, uh Sarah. I just think... I think that we shouldn't be together anymore. I mean it's been a great 4 months but.. I mean it's not you, it's me. I mean, oh Sarah, I gotta go bye." he hung up abruptly without giving her a chance to reply.

Sarah immediately started to tear up but held back so that the eavesdropping Karen wouldn't notice. It was one thing to just use the 'It's not you, it's me', line but to do that and on the phone. Sarah felt so cheap. She tryed to walk casually back up to her room so as not to draw attention. Halfway up the stairs Karen noticed she was gone and ranted about her plate of food still on the table when Sarah jsut dashed into her room and slammed her door shut. She flopped on ehr bed and began to cry heaving sobs of self-pity. She didn't need this right now. At all. She rolled herself up into a shaking ball under her covers and cried herself to sleep.

She awoke to the noise of Karen and her father bustling around downstairs. She straightened herself up and wiped the dry tears off of her cheeks and made her way downstairs. Karen was dressed in a pale pastel colored dress that she always wore to parties. They were always the color that made Sarah want to throw up. Karen was clipping on her earrings when she spotted Sarah and gave her a distainful stare. Sarah ignored it and helped her father with his cufflinks silently.

"Your watching Toby tonight. Don't even try to backtalk me after you left your nice hot breakfast on the table to rot. It's in the fridge if you are still hungry. I don't want it to be in there when we come back either." She said as she contiued putting on tacky gold jewelry. "Toby is in his room. His dinner is in the blue container in the fridge, heat it up for 5 minutes. We will be back around eleven." With that said, Karen grabbed her husband's hand and pulled him out the door while he looked helpless and waved goodbye.

Sarah immediately tried to busy herself with preparing Toby's dinner, trying not to think about what had happened earlier that day. She threw the pancakes in the garbage and threw some paper towel over it to hide it. She popped in Toby's Barney tape and put him in his bouncer in the living room infront of his tv with his food. It was liver and carrots. The smell made Sarah want to puke up her own liver. The three-year-old bounced happily and he munched his foul meat and sang along to a song about friendship. Funny how those songs teach the exact opposite of how things really are in life. Love is grand, hah. Sarah felt her stomache scrunch up like she desperately wanted something and pondered for a few seconds. She jogged up the stairs and grabbed the book and hiked back down and settled herself on the couch, trying to drone out the sounds of the big purple dinosaur.

Soon the tape was over and the toddler was asleep face first in his dinner. Sarah cleaned him up and laid him down on a blanket on the floor and continued to read. Soon the call of sleep was too much to resist and she gave into a dark, dreamless sleep.

"Sarah! What were you thinking!?" Karen screamed as she thundered into the living room with a flour-covered Toby in her arms. "I ask you to do one thing for me, babysit. And you can't even give half of your attention to it!"

Sarah immediately snapped out of her sleep and thought one thing. Shit. She saw Karen glaring at the book in her hands and went to hide it but Karen snatched it out of her hands. She read is slowly, her face grew furious as she read. Karen was so red Sarah thought she might explode. "Sarah, I thought you were over this childish nonsense!"

"I'm so sorry.." Sarah peeped as she tryed to do some damage control.

"You know what Sarah?" Karen said as she took her eyes off the book. " I wish the Goblin King would take _you_ away. Right now!" she yelled loudly.

"No!" Sarah shreiked as the room filled with black mist and a shimmery flashing light.

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This is my first attempt at writting a fanfic on the Labyrinth. Please tell me what you think of this first chapter.


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